The present invention relates generally to the graphic arts industry and more particularly to a conveyor for printed sheet material, as well as to a method for transferring printed sheet material.
After printing by a printing press, printed sheet material may be cut, folded and collected into stacks. Newspaper sections for example may be collected together. The collected sheet material is then transferred and conveyed in various manners. The collected sheet material may be for example collected in individual moving pockets. The collected sheet material may be collected by insertion into open sections, or by collation as separate individual sheets or sections are placed side-by-side, or by both insertion and collation.
An example of a pocket conveyor is for example found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,447,229, which prepares spines for binding, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,479,643 and 3,874,649 also disclose pocket conveyors. Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG also manufactures the MAGNAPACK pocket conveyor.
The sheet material, once collected, may be transferred to a further conveyor by opening the bottom of the pocket and permitting the printed sheet material to be dropped. For example, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG manufactures a gripper called the NP125 which can grip newspaper sections dropped from a pocket conveyor.